


Jordan just wanted to run errands.

by Jellofello



Category: Self Aware (Webcomic)
Genre: Gen, Illustrations, jordan kai mallory is a mess, jordan kai mallory is tired, mell carter is a mystery, someone please kick aaron mallory's ass
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-19
Updated: 2020-09-19
Packaged: 2021-03-07 15:51:06
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,922
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26550178
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jellofello/pseuds/Jellofello
Summary: [A oneshot of meeting mell in the alley from Jordan's POV, and what happens after.]Jordan has things to do. He was annoyed enough having to call the police, then even more annoyed when they bothered him into hanging up. It's not his problem if some stupid kids got into a fight or something.It's still not his problem, even when he gets curious enough to investigate and finds an odd boy and someone he knows.He's tired, and just wants to get his stupid errands done.You (probably? mostly?) don't need to have read Self Aware for this.
Comments: 9
Kudos: 12





	Jordan just wanted to run errands.

This isn’t what Jordan expected or wanted to happen today. He pauses in his step, weighing his options a bit. What does he do about hearing a gunshot?

  
  
_ If I keep walking, I might get asked why I didn’t call the police. If I do call the police, I run the risk of having to speak with them in person.  _ He sighs, taking his phone out.

“911 Operator, what is your emergency?” Oh, so they really do talk like that. Jordan’s never had to call the police before. Well, that’s not fully true. He should have at many points in his life, but just didn’t. 

  
  
“I heard gunshots.” As well as yelling, but Jordan doubts that’s important. 

  
  
“What is your location?”  _ Oh. I have no idea. I don’t know my way around town very well.  _ He pauses, “Sir?”  _ Sir, huh.  _

“I don’t know. I’m not from around here.” That’s a lie. 

  
  
“Can you describe any of the buildings around you?” 

  
  
“I’m near a light red building with a checker design above the door?” He looks around for signage, “Rainor Studio?” 

“Got it.” The person on the other end says. Jordan can hear the clacking of keys in the background. “Do you hear anything else?” They ask. He thinks back to the yelling. 

“No.” 

  
  
“Please stay where you are, help is on the way-” 

  
  
“I don’t want to.” 

  
  
“Pardon?” The operator stutters a bit.

“Why do I have to stay? I have things to do.” 

  
  
“We would need to question you about-” 

  
  
“I heard gunshots. I called the police. This call is being monitored. You have all the information I know already.” 

  
  
“Please, just-” 

Jordan hangs up. 

_ I hate people.  _

He thinks he has a few minutes before the police should start showing up, and he’s honestly a bit curious to see what happened. He heads towards the source of the noise, waiting around the corner. 

“God dammit this- This is why I said to run, Aspen!” An angry voice snarls. Jordan wants to get a visual but he’s not sure if either of them are facing the ally yet. 

“If I ran, it probably would have been you he shot at. Would that have been any better?”  _ I know this voice. Aspen. Do I know an Aspen?  _ Jordan doesn’t think so. The voice is far calmer than the former. It sounds like he was the one that was shot at.  _ He’s likely in shock, or just used to this.  _

“Yes, actually. I’d rather get shot than have witnesses.” The other voice mumbles. Jordan decides to risk it and leans a bit around the corner to see them. One of them is covering his face, mostly his eyes, and practically shaking with rage.  _ Must be this voice.  _ He probably would have spotted Jordan if he moved his hands.    
  
Jordan sees who he assumes is Aspen, narrowing his eyes a bit.  _ Oh. It’s you. What a weird coincidence.  _ Looks like he uses Aspen now. Jordan admits it’s probably a smart move. Aspen’s hair is grown out on one side, with white curls. One of his eyes is orange. He looks fairly different to what he looked like when Jordan was first made aware of him, but the changes are… Understandable, for lack of a better word. 

“Because now I have to explain myself.” The other one mumbles again. His breathing is a bit labored. 

“That can wait, are you alright? You’ve been covering his eyes for a while.” Aspen asks, concern lacing his voice. Did his friend get something in his eyes during whatever happened? 

  
  
Right. The rest of the scene. 

  
  
Jordan tilts his head a bit, seeing two grown men sprawled out on the ground, clothes dirtied and certainly a bit bloodied. A metal bat lays not too far from Aspen’s friend, who himself seems to have specks of blood on him.  _ There’s teeth on the ground.  _ Did that kid beat those two up with no issues? He can see the kid’s knuckles are red and his lip is busted.  _ There’s no way Aspen could or would fight anyways.  _ Based on the footage and reports he read, anyways. 

“Yeah, yeah it’s just… When I get emotional, my eyes sort of… act up.” The friend says.  _ What does that mean?  _ Jordan wants to know how eyes can act up in such a way that a person goes through the trouble of hiding them.  _ Does he mean pupil dilation? Do they dilate more than they should?  _ It’d be a decent reason why he’s covering them, if it was to block out the light. 

“Wait, those aren’t contacts?” Aspen asks with a tone of disbelief.  _ So this kid has eyes that are odd, and Aspen was under the impression they were a cosmetic choice. He must not know this person very well?  _ Is that something a person tells their friends? If their eye color was caused by contacts? Jordan wouldn’t know anything about having friends. 

Though, most people assume Jordan wears colored contacts, seeing as his eye color is by all means unnatural. That and his unnaturally blue hair. Most people just assume he dyes it.  _ How could I dye thigh length hair and have no damage. I never have roots showing because it grows blue.  _ It baffles him how no one asks, but he supposes it’s a good thing people don’t question things too much. 

No one questions things in this town. 

Running his hands through his hair a moment, he thinks.  _ I should make myself known, in case the police see me waiting here.  _

“Hello? Is everything alright?” He calls, stepping out from around the corner, “I heard gunshots and yelling.” He pretends to look around for the first time. “Well, it looks like everything’s handled. Which begs the question: Are you guys the bad guys, or were they severely underprepared?” Seriously, they look like they aren’t breathing on the ground and only one of these kids look like they fought. 

Aspen looks at Jordan for a long moment.  _ He doesn’t know who I am, does he. Then again, why would he? I work behind the scenes.  _

_ Ah. I can tell his friend is staring at me. I’m not looking at him yet, my focus is on Aspen.  _

“How do we know you’re not one of them?” Aspen asks, eyeing Jordan. 

“One of them?” Jordan plays along. 

“A backup sent in case they failed.”  _ If they were smart enough to consider a backup, I think they’d also be smart enough to not get their asses handed to them by a teen, and yet here we are.  _

“As I just said, I’m here because I heard the gun.” Jordan repeats himself, slightly annoyed but not showing it. Aspen tilts his head at that. 

“And your choice was to go towards it?” He asks. 

“Yep. I was running errands. Nothing better to do.” Jordan shrugs.  _ If I die, then I die and that’s that.  _ “Anyway, the police are on their way. I’d cover up any sketchy business you might have before they arrive.”  _ Though I doubt someone with a record like Aspen’s would be doing anything considered “sketchy”.  _

The staring by Aspen’s friend is getting on Jordan’s nerves. He decides to look over at the kid. 

_ Oh.  _

_ He’s pretty.  _

The kid has weird eyes, his face and ears are bright red, his cheek and lip are injured. Everything Jordan sees is messy and disordered, but oddly mesmerizing. This kid is already close to Jordan, having moved closer and closer the longer he spoke to Aspen. 

Jordan holds a hand up, wanting to wave to get his attention.  _ He looks like he’s zoned out? Is he in shock as well?  _ The kid raises a hand, mirroring his movements.  _ Odd.  _

“And uh… You.” He starts, watching the boy’s eyes dart around but staying on Jordan. “Are you okay? You seem pretty out of it, and you’re the only one that’s injured.”  _ He looks like he’s processing nothing I’m saying.  _ “Are you mirroring me?” 

Does his lip need stitches? This kid looks far too red to just be from fighting. Is he sick? 

“Here, hold still.” Jordan reaches a hand out, feeling the side of his face and holding him still. “You’re burning up.”  _ He has a fever?  _ “But the scrapes and bruising don’t look too bad.” He hums. Now that he’s closer, the cut on his lip doesn’t look too deep.  _ His ears are pointed? Yet again, odd.  _

_ _

Jordan notices the earrings he’s wearing.  _ No way.  _

_ I remember these.  _

He knows where these earrings came from. Of course he does.  _ I’d need to get closer to see the serial number on them.  _ Why does this strange kid have trackers on him? Does he know what they are? 

A kid with trackers, and Aspen, a kid with a past. Yet it seems like those two don’t know each other very well. 

It’s one coincidence after the other and Jordan finds himself feeling vaguely uncomfortable. 

“Huh, what interesting earrings.” Jordan mumbles to the kid. He looks at the boy’s eyes again and pauses.  _ Yellow eyes. Very bright yellow eyes with square pupils. These could be contacts but.  _ Jordan watches them dilate a bit more, the kid is looking him in the eyes yet looking past him.  _ They can’t be contacts, can they?  _ Jordan doesn’t want them to be contacts. There’s no mystery in it if they are. “And even more interesting eyes.” 

‘Interesting’, he says.  _ Scientifically and aesthetically, they’re beautiful.  _

He waits for any sort of response, met with nothing. 

The boy’s eyes widen ever so slightly, before they roll and begin to close. The kid is falling.  _ He’s passing out?  _

“Hey, Hey wait-” Jordan tries, feeling the warmth of this kid’s face leave his hand as he turns away to fall.  _ He tried moving away from me at the last second. Why? What was he thinking?  _

“Mell?!” Aspen calls.  _ His name is Mell.  _

_ Mell  _ hits the ground harshly.  _ I could have made some move to catch him, I guess. Then again, I naturally default to using my lines rather than hands.  _ He’d rather let him fall and become concussed than risk accidentally letting someone see he has tendrils coming out of his spinal cord. 

“Is mell okay?” Aspen asks. 

“That’s a decent question.” Jordan hums. “Was he majorly injured?” 

“No.” 

“Was anyone actually shot?” 

  
  
“They tried to shoot me but missed.” Aspen says. Something about the way he says it is off. Like it could be a lie, but not. A half truth, Jordan supposes.  _ I don’t see any casings.  _

“Seem pretty calm for someone who’s been shot at.” He replies. 

“It’s shock, I promise.” At least Aspen’s aware of it. 

Jordan’s back itches. He hates having to keep his lines retracted. Retracting them makes his chronic pain worse, and it takes a conscious and constant effort to keep them hidden. All in all, it’s annoying.  _ I want to get out of here.  _

The door swings open and he curses himself a bit.  _ I didn’t think they’d get here so fast.  _

A short boy in all red in front of them. 

“Guys! The police showed up at the front door and said-” He pauses, noticing Mell, who Jordan assumes is his friend, on the ground. His eyes widen considerably, he’s fearful. “Mell?! What happened!” 

  
  


One of the officers locks eyes with Jordan, and Jordan realizes he’s standing closest to Mell.  _ This looks bad.  _

“Is anyone hurt or in need of an emergency?” The officer asks. 

“The two who attacked us are worse off, officer.” Aspen answers. 

“Who did all of the fighting?” 

“Mell would have had to.” The red-head answers. He seems dejected.  _ Oh. You’re Elliot Rainor.  _ Jordan thought he seemed familiar. He didn’t guess it’s because he’s a celebrity. 

“Does the kid have a history of violence?” 

“....Yes, officer.” Why does Elliot seem so worried? There must be something with Mell and fighting.  _ Must have a record.  _

“And you hired him as your bodyguard, correct?” 

“....Yeah.” 

Jordan doesn’t get it. He was doing his job if he took out the two assailants, right? Why does the officer sound like Mell did something bad?  _ Who cares if he could have killed them, it was in self defense.  _

“Hm. I see.” 

That Elliot kid looks like he’s going to be sick, looking at Mell on the ground. Jordan sighs and kneels down to Mell, flipping him onto his back and looking him over. 

“If he’s not injured, he could have passed out from the adrenaline wearing off, seeing as the fight’s over now.” Jordan offers, “His heart rate has gone down a bit.” Jordan takes this time to get a closer look at his earrings. 

_ Serial number #728404….. That’s… Huh.  _ It’s yet another odd coincidence. It’s interesting. 

“Um, who are you?! Please give Mell space!” Elliot scolds Jordan with his hands on his hips.  _ Aren’t you cold missing half of your shirt?  _ Those bell sleeves would never be allowed in a lab environment, either.  _ Elliot Rainor. Someone famous.  _

“I’d like to know too, considering you’re giving a lot of input here.” Aspen adds on.  _ Someone who  _ really  _ should have been famous.  _

_ “ _ I’m literally just the one who called 911. You’re welcome.” Jordan snarks, holding up his phone.  _ I should probably get going.  _

Jordan nods to them, turning around to walk off without another word. 

“Hold it, you can’t leave yet.” An officer calls after him. Jordan rolls his eyes and walks on without so much as a glance back. “The disrespect of the youth.” He mumbles. 

Jordan can hear the officer quietly going after him. He turns onto the main street and walks down the sidewalk, dipping into an alley the first chance he gets.  _ I have things to do, you know.  _ The footsteps follow. 

“Where do you think you’re going?!” The officer whines.  _ Fuck. Dead end. I don’t want to stick around.  _

“I have errands to run.” Jordan answers, looking around to find there's no cameras.  _ Even if there are, the footage is no issue for me to deal with.  _

“You’re more concerned over some stupid tasks than the police talking to you? You think you’re better than us?” The officer asks. Jordan considers both questions. 

“Yes.” 

  
  
“Why I oughtta-” 

  
  
“Ought to what? I haven’t done anything. I’ve answered all I needed to and took my leave. I have places to be.” 

“If you won’t answer willingly, I have no issue hauling you down to the station for questioning, punk.”  _ Is that allowed?  _

“I would sincerely like to see you try.” Jordan deadpans.

The officer moves to arrest Jordan, no doubt confident seeing there’s nothing but a wall behind him.  _ Well, it’s not like they can find me once I get away.  _

_ _

The moment the officer moves to grab him, Jordan’s lines are already out and reaching to grab the man. He slams the officer into the nearest wall and lifts him off the ground. The look of terror aimed at Jordan is familiar and nothing new.

Jordan’s back feels a little better, being able to use his limbs. 

“The hell are you?! You’re not fucking human!” 

  
  
“So I’ve been told.” Jordan answers coolly. 

“Let me go, you fucking squid!”  _...Two human arms and four limbs.  _

“You aren’t counting my legs, I’d be an octopus, actually.” 

  
  
The man doesn’t like his joke. It’s fine, Jordan liked it. 

It takes all of five seconds for Jordan to knock the man unconscious, putting his sleeping body in the dumpster. 

He retracts his lines yet again, and goes to finally do his errands. 

* * *

_ God what did I need again? Bromophenol blue, barium hydroxide, pancuronium… What am I forgetting?  _

Jordan finally got rid of that stupid cop and left the area completely, and now that he has things to do he finds himself a bit scrambled. 

_ Nothing happened that’s any more eventful than I can handle? I should be functioning normally but I’m… Distracted?  _

_   
_ _   
_ He thinks back to what happened. 

_ Oh. That kid.  _

Mell, his name was. 

Between his eyes, his earrings, his odd behavior to the way he passed out without injury. 

It’s like a puzzle. 

One Jordan walked away from. 

_ I suppose I can understand why I’d be bothered by this. I’ll never see this strange kid again and I’ll never get any answers to the things I wonder.  _

It’s not all that uncommon for Jordan to find himself curious of things he finds when he’s outside. Just like when he had to go buy supplies for his personal lab and got distracted by the town placing small lights everywhere.  _ They said they lit the trees up because of “Christmas”.  _ Jordan forgot to look up what that is. 

“Ma’am? Are you listening?” Right. Jordan was next in line.  _ Ugh, “ma’am”.  _ He nods, handing the person behind the pharmacy counter a card to read. They nod solemnly at it and calls someone to take him around back. 

“You’ve been making a lot more trips here lately.” Marco notes. Marco is the employee who knows his way around this storage room, but really all of the employees are in on the illegal sales.  _ Aviancorp really does have everything wrapped around its finger.  _

“I have plans.” Jordan answers, realizing that sounds a bit suspicious. “I have some experiments I want to run.” 

  
  
“Personal or on company time?” Marco asks, looking to get Jordan’s usual orders. 

“They’re the same thing.” 

  
  
“You must get paid a lot. I don’t know any intern that works so much for free.” 

“I’m paid decently.”  _ I’m not paid at all.  _

“How much of a dent does hair dye put in your wallet, Kai?” Kai. What Jordan's called when he leaves Aviancorp property. 

“I get sales.”  _ I do not dye my hair, Marco.  _

“That’s right. You’re a smart shopper.” Marco hums, “Say, why do you always get veterinary drugs instead of the normal ones?” 

“People ask less questions and they cost me less.” 

“Do you… have an issue with people asking questions?” Marco thinks he’s being funny. 

“Yes.” 

  
  
“I’m just teasing you, kid!”  _ Kid?  _

“Uh huh.” 

  
  
“In any case,” Marco drops a box from a shelf onto a table, pulling out various bottles and putting on gloves. “You can promise me these, as always, are for ethical purposes?” 

“Of course.” Jordan looks away. 

* * *

Aaron stands in the doorway, watching Jordan’s movements as he works.  _ Shit. He must have found out.  _

“Hello.” Aaron greets, letting himself into the room, not putting on proper lab gear.  _ He wants to observe my work?  _

“Hi.” Jordan answers through gritted teeth. 

“Local police station said they had some issues with a person sporting long bright blue hair?” He questions.  _ He has eyes fucking everywhere. Of course he has the police too.  _

“Blue is a popular hair color.” 

“According to whom? And amongst whom?” Aaron asks, leaning in. Jordan can feel the eyes boring into him but refuses to look up to meet them. He keeps his eyes trained on his experiment, still working. 

“Depends. People joke blue is a hair coloring choice that denotes some sort of mental instability.” He glances up to meet Aaron’s eyes. 

“Are you saying you’re unstable? Not in condition to work?” 

  
  
“No, sir.” Jordan sighs, “Naturally blue hair means nothing in those jokes.” 

“Just making sure.” There’s a pause, “Why were the police aware of you today?” 

“I called the police for someone.” 

  
  
“Why would you do that?” 

  
  
“I heard gunshots. I figured it would have been worse to be seen on cameras hearing the shots and then leaving. Good citizens are less suspicious, I’ve heard.” 

“Did you talk to the people in the incident?”  _ The police must have told him enough. I can’t lie.  _

“Yes.” Jordan answers, “Enough to tell them the police are on their way and to see if anyone was majorly injured.” 

“What do you care for the wellbeing of others, Jordan?” Aaron almost sneers, gesturing to the body on the table. Jordan stills the movement of his scalpel.  _ This experiment was ordered. It doesn’t count.  _

“It was different. I don’t care for the wellbeing of anyone.” 

“Not even yourself,  _ son _ ?” 

Jordan doesn’t answer. 

“Are you afraid?” Aaron asks, likely seeing the lines showing through Jordan’s skin.  _ I can’t keep my heartrate down. They were likely to show anyways.  _ “You know you’re not very good at hiding it with 402 in your system. They tell on you.”  _ Shut it.  _ “I repeat. Do you care for yourself? Do you want to live?” 

“I care for my wellbeing.” He lies.  _ You and I both know I don’t care for living, Mr. Mallory.  _

“Then-” 

A hand wraps around Jordans lines near his back, twisting them and pulling. He hits the floor as he feels his spinal cord screaming to be put out of its misery.  _ Don’t fucking touch me.  _ He can feel his lines writhing under his skin and rising to the surface.

“Then.” Aaron won’t let go. “Why did I hear from an officer that you used these in public?”  _ Let. Go.  _

“It’s- It was an act of self defense. If he took me into custody and tried getting anything about my identity, it would have been more problematic for the company. I-I was thinking in advance.” 

“Oh, were you?” Aaron lets go promptly, wandering around to the other side of the table to read Jordan’s experiment notes. Jordan stays on the floor, lines wrapping around himself.  _ It hurts.  _ Even if he wanted to stand he doubts he could right now. 

“Yes, sir.” 

“Alright.” Aaron hums, “Anything interesting catch your eye while you were out today?” _If I tell him about those people, Mell, he’d probably order him taken as an experiment._ To be honest, Jordan wonders why someone with eyes like that _hasn't_ been taken as a test subject yet. 

While Jordan doesn’t care for the safety of others, he doesn’t see the point in dragging people into this mess if they’re blissfully ignorant. 

“I saw a small dog.” He answers instead of saying ‘nothing’. 

“Would you like a pet?” 

  
  
“No. I was just surprised they could be that small and not be infantile.” 

The conversation dies out soon after, and Aaron excuses himself to check on his other employees. He lingers in the door way a moment. 

“You ought to cut that hair, it’s not practical in your work.” 

“I like it this way.”  _ I hope he doesn’t consider this talking back. _

  
  
“I see. Just make sure you continue being careful in the lab with it.” 

“Yes, sir.” 

With Aaron gone, Jordan gives himself a moment to breathe and steel his nerves. He looks back to the body on the table. His lines pick up the scalpel and forceps, his hands rest in his pockets to be safely out the way of his more important limbs. 

Eyes meet his. He shouldn’t have glanced up at the subject. His eyes connect with the paralyzed subject. It’s obvious they’re terrified, even if they can no longer emote. 

“I can’t afford to apologize to the subjects.” Jordan explains, “I’m not even supposed to be speaking to you.” 

The subject hums, still scared but sounding slightly curious. 

“Test subjects are not to be considered human by the workers.”  _ Just like they hardly consider me human since my experimentation.  _ Jordan’s a special case, though. He’s considered human when something’s needed of him. The subject’s eyes linger on the lines still showing through Jordan’s face. “If you’re worried about ending up like me, I assure you subjects will never get something as bad as me.” 

Oh. Aaron called him son, didn’t he? 

  
  
The test subject won’t be allowed to live because of that.

**Author's Note:**

> hi howdy, so for my birthday i kinda like the idea of Doing Something. So consider this the something
> 
> Self Aware (the webcomic) was originally supposed to come out on my birthday last year, but i just got impatient and uploaded early
> 
> Does this?? count as canon??? yeah you can Assume its canon to the story
> 
> if you're here because you're wondering about my other fics: i'm still going to update them. I'm just in the middle of rereading regen as a Refresher, so it takes time yknow?
> 
> the comic this goes to!!: https://www.webtoons.com/en/challenge/self-aware/list?title_no=330088
> 
> HOWEVER, IF YOU WANNA KNOW HEY WHAT THE HELL IS UP WITH JORDAN AND THOSE LINES, ITS ALL EXPLAINED IN THIS SHORT STORY: https://www.webtoons.com/en/challenge/subject-402/list?title_no=426462
> 
> my linktree: https://linktr.ee/JelloFello


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